“Have you ever noticed how in Hollywood movies, all the villains are played by Brits?”

If we didn’t before, we sure do now.

Ben Kingsley poses this question in the first five seconds of a 1-minute ad, “Rendezvous,” for the Jaguar F-TYPE coupe to launch Jaguar North America’s largest-ever brand and product marketing campaign, called “British Villains.” It’s Jaguar’s first Super Bowl TV advertisement.

And the kick-off ad went all out. “Rendezvous” was filmed in London and directed by Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech,” “Les Miserables”) with a score by Alexandre Desplat (“The King’s Speech,” “Argo,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” and over 100 more). And the three stars make quite a case for British Villains to reign forever. Mark Strong (“Sherlock Holmes”) says “Maybe we just sound right.” Tom Hiddleston (“The Avengers”) instructs “A stiff upper lip is key.” And Kingsley (“Ender’s Game,” “Iron Man 3”) concludes “It’s good to be bad.”

And of course, they all drive Jaguars.

Hooper declared he was
“quite happy to oblige when Jaguar asked me to be a part of their first
Super Bowl commercial.” He continued, “To work with the caliber of great
actors we cast in this project is a truly special experience on its own
and reflects the cinematic approach that we took in the production with
Jaguar.”